The present invention relates to stoves of the type that can be usefully employed to burn wood or coal and which will supply substantially more heat than previously employed stoves of this nature.
With the increasing scarcity of fossil fuels, utility companies have, in recent times, increased their rates thus rendering home heating units of the gas or electrical type relatively expensive to operate. Homeowners have, therefore, turned their attention to less expensive alternatives to electric, gas or oil heaters and particular attention has been directed to the use of wood or coal burning stoves. However, the use of such stoves of the prior art has failed to provide adequate heating for contemporary dwellings which are characterized by large open spaces and such stoves have been plagued by the problems of smoke and soot accumulation in the room or rooms being heated, thus discouraging the use of such stoves or limiting their usefulness to recreational as opposed to the residential type of dwellings.
Some stove structures such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,058,094 of Oct. 20, 1936, have endeavored to improve heat transfer from the burning fuel to the ambient air by employing complicated ducting arrangements. In addition to the significant increase in manufacturing cost that result from such structures, often other difficulties result such as localized hot spots on the exterior walls of the stove and the localized accumulation of soot on the interior surfaces of the stove which are both inconvenient and often difficult to clean.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a stove structure which avoids the foregoing difficulties and yet one which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture, both in terms of the materials and labor involved.
In a preferred embodiment, the object of the present invention is attained by providing, in a stove enclosure, a first V-shaped baffle plate which extends from the front wall of the enclosure towards the rear wall thereof but is spaced a distance from the rear wall and a second, flat baffle plate which vertically overlies a portion of the V-shaped plate but which extends from the rear wall towards the front wall of the stove enclosure but falls short of the front wall to thereby define a vent path which both greatly increases the quantitiy of heat that is transmitted to the radiating exterior surfaces of the stove enclosure, before reaching the flue vent, but which also substantially reduces the accumulation of soot and other types of refuse on the interior surfaces of the stove. In addition, side air channels are provided which function to draw in room air, circulate it through the channels and return it to the front of the stove, at which point the heated air is returned to the surrounding spaces for the purpose of heating same.